SALVATORE MELI (b. 1929)  Italy

Important Sculpture / Ewer   1952

Glazed terra cotta, brown and dark green with white scraffito decoration, original stepped and angular wood base.

Signed: Meli 1952 Roma

For more info on Meli see: Design 1935-1965, What Modern was, ed. Martin Eidelberg (New York: Harry Abrams, 1991) p. 237.

Salvatore Meli belongs to that initial group of artists, including Guido Gambone and Lucio Fontana among others, who elevated Italian ceramics to a fine art during the post-war period.  Meli conceived this vessel, first on paper, then by laboriously constructing the body in clay, coil by coil, to achieve the richly textured and dynamic form; the incised and painted decoration is in concert with the organic shape.  The massive scale of this work defies function as a ewer but was created as a sculptural object.  The original wooden base recalls Italian futurist sculpture forms of the early twentieth century.

H (with base):  23 1/2” x W:  13” x D:  9.5”
H (without base):  19 1/8”

Price: $27,500